Deborah Douglas, a breast cancer survivor given a so-called ‘cleavage-sparing mastectomy’ by rogue surgeon Ian Paterson, fought for justice against the odds and was instrumental in his arrest and incarceration. Here she shares her incredible story
Deborah Douglas
Unwavering support from her husband and her three adult children kept Deborah Douglas going through her darkest hours. That and the feeling that justice was being done. Positive thinking continues to numb the emotional pain for Deborah, 67, a breast cancer survivor given a so-called ‘cleavage-sparing mastectomy’ by rogue surgeon Ian Paterson.
Recalling how she felt when Paterson was jailed for 15 years in 2017 – increased to 20 on appeal – for 20 counts of wounding, she says: “It was devastating.” The charges related to unapproved mastectomies on nine female and one male patients between 1997 and 2011, who were wrongly told they had cancer.
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Deborah, who did have cancer was not one of them. But she discovered a simple lumpectomy would have removed her tumour – meaning the mastectomy and chemotherapy she endured were not needed. She says: “I felt violated. To have that kind of trust broken was really unnerving. When Paterson was jailed it was like a weight had been lifted. Finally I could breathe out. I wake up in the morning now and feel like some justice has been done.”
Ian Paterson(Image: BPM Media)
Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003 by Paterson, Deborah had a mastectomy, reconstructive surgery and chemotherapy – before later learning her condition had been exaggerated and her treatment had been unnecessarily extensive. One of at least 1,000 victims of the ‘butcher’ surgeon, during a 14 year period, some were given botched procedures which didn’t remove all cancerous breast tissue, allowing the disease to return or spread – leading to several deaths.
A quality engineer in the aerospace industry when she met Paterson back in 2003, Deborah says: “He wrongly told many women that they had cancer, in order to operate on them – and make money to fund his lavish lifestyle, living in a large Georgian mansion in Edgbaston, Birmingham.” Deborah, who lives in Birmingham with her husband Bob, 70, a driver, and has three children – Robert, 41, Jennifer, 40 and William, 37, with him and two grandchildren, Sophia, nine, and Bella, six – says: “Cancer has unfortunately been in my life for a long time.”
Losing her mum to oesophageal cancer and her dad to lung cancer, in November 2003, she found a lump in her left breast. With private healthcare through work, she was given an appointment with Paterson at the Spire Parkway Hospital in Birmingham.
Deborah after losing her hair to chemo(Image: Supplied)
Deborah and family just before her surgery(Image: Supplied)
He also worked at Spire Little Aston Hospital in Birmingham between 1997 and 2011, and at NHS hospitals run by the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust. Deborah continues: “I’d barely sat down before Paterson told me that I needed a mastectomy and reconstruction to my left breast. ‘You’ll go in with two boobs and come out with two boobs and a nice flat stomach’, he said.
“I was shocked. I thought I only needed a lump removed. I had big breasts, I was a G cup, and asked why I needed a mastectomy. He made it sound that it would be dangerous if I didn’t have the whole thing taken off. He told me that if he did what he said, it would be curable. “
Believing him, as the expert, she went ahead.She says: “I woke up in agony, he’d removed all my lymph nodes too. I was so unprepared for the state I would wake up in, although I didn’t assume at this point that anything was wrong.” Six weeks later she began seven months of gruelling chemotherapy, losing her hair and saying her skin, particularly her scar tissue, was “on fire.”
Paterson remained her specialist until his 2011 suspension, but she was recalled for a scan in 2012. Meanwhile, complaints against Paterson were mounting, as evidence of his unnecessary operations – including “cleavage-sparing mastectomies” like Deborah’s – as well as women who had been left with some cancerous tissue after botched operations, was uncovered.
She says: “At my scan, the doctor made an offhand comment, saying that for a lady with my size breasts there didn’t appear to have been much breast tissue taken. The definition of a mastectomy is a flat chest wall. But because I had immediate reconstruction surgery after my mastectomy, there was no way I could check that.
Deborah says “life is good now”
“What’s more, my scar is elliptical around the breast, while normally during a mastectomy they go in through the nipple. When I asked why my scar was so big, Paterson replied that the lump was bigger than they thought. I consented to a mastectomy, like many others, but what we were getting was a partial mastectomy. He was very misogynistic. He had this view that women would be happy with a cleavage. How wrong he was – these women just wanted to survive.”
Commenting on an independent medical report she received in 2013, Deborah said: “My mastectomy and chemotherapy at the hands of Ian Paterson had not been necessary. “The report stated that the recommended treatment for cancer of my type was a wide local excision, an operation to remove the lump rather than the breast. If I’d been offered that I’d have taken it in a heartbeat.
“Paterson put me through hell – unnecessary operations and months of gruelling chemo that left my body broken and feeling horrific. And for what? To line his pocket with money from private procedures.” Working with the police, Deborah, who had made meticulous notes in her journal throughout her whole experience, told them everything.
Now chairwoman of the charity Breast Friends, her campaigning for justice earned her the nickname the ‘Erin Brockovich of Birmingham’ after the go-getting legal clerk and activist. And in 2022, she was awarded a special recognition award by Pride of Britain. She says: “I was so incredibly proud.”
Deborah has written a book about her experience, The Cost of Trust, which is out Feb 12
Deborah, who watched Paterson in the dock and recalls him “shaking his head in disbelief as if he was the victim,” says her husband’s support helped her get through it. She says: “Bob has been with me every step of the way, as have my children. Bob held my hand and comforted me when I was in pain, and he encouraged me to fight when I found out what Paterson had done. Now, he encourages me to put my laptop away and enjoy life, which is just as important. His support is unwavering. He’s my rock.”
Stripped of his £1 million NHS pension in 2024 by Health Secretary Wes Streeting, the same year inquests were also opened into 65 unnatural deaths of Paterson’s patients – and more could be added. Deborah says: “He was so arrogant, he never thought he would be brought to task. He had a licence to print money.”
Recalling her experiences in her debut book, The Cost Of Trust, which is out this week, Deborah says: “I never wanted this. But I was the wrong person, or the right person, for Paterson to come up against. I was able to continue that fight. My character is such that I am very driven if I think there has been an injustice. You’re not going to get away with it. And we can’t have this happen again.”
Brave Deborah has helped so many others
But Deborah fears that not enough has been done to protect the public from rogue surgeons like Paterson. She says: “The public wants to know they have a safe surgeon. And internally, if your surgeon has twice as many surgeries on their books is it because they’re good or are they cutting corners?”
Meanwhile, Paterson is set to be released from prison on parole in May 2027, which will be before the inquests into some of his patients’ deaths have concluded. Deborah says: “The families are going to watch him walk free while they’re still talking about their loved ones’ deaths. It’s totally wrong. It’s not fair.”
But Deborah, who is in remission, remains hopeful that positive change will come. She says: “It’s about moving forwards, and putting robust things in place to stop this happening again. And, for me, life is good now.”
*The Cost of Trust by Deborah Douglas with Tracy King will be published 12th February by Mudlark (£20)
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